Magnetic hard disk drives retrieve and/or store data in computers and other consumer electronics devices. A magnetic hard disk drive includes one or more heads that can read and write information on a corresponding magnetic surface of a spinning disk. Each head is a sub-component of a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The HGA also includes a suspension assembly for holding the head and providing a plurality of electrical connections thereto. The suspension assembly typically includes a fragile laminated flexure to carry the electrical signals to and from the head.
The head typically comprises a slider that includes an air bearing surface (ABS) that faces the magnetic disk surface, a trailing face, and a back face that is opposite the ABS and that faces away from the ABS. A magnetic sensor and a plurality of head bond pads are typically disposed on the trailing face of the slider. The back face of the slider is typically permanently bonded to a tongue portion of the fragile laminated flexure by an adhesive, in a position such that the plurality of head bond pads are aligned with corresponding bond pads on the laminated flexure.
Conventionally, the head writes tiny magnetic transitions on the magnetic disk surface by applying sufficient magnetic field to the desired microscopic disk surface location to overcome the coercivity of the disk surface material there, and thereby change the remnant field there. However, market demand for disk drives having ever higher data storage capacity has motivated investigation into the possible use of “energy assisted” magnetic recording (EAMR), in which writing is accomplished not only by local application of a magnetic field, but also by local application of laser light. EAMR may enable the writing of smaller transitions, and thereby increase the areal density of data stored on the disk surface.
Most proposed EAMR technologies require the addition of a laser light source on the head, for example bonded to the back face of the slider. However, the addition of a laser light source on the back face of the slider may interfere with bonding the back face of the slider to the tongue portion of the laminated flexure, and may result in misalignment of the plurality of head bond pads with respect to the corresponding bond pads on the laminated flexure. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a disk drive suspension assembly for heads that include a laser light source for EAMR.